Thailand: Hidden Gems in Isan: Nong Khai

I’m not exactly in the most central of locations in terms of beaches, resorts, and cities. I’m very far north, right by the Laos border, in a region called Isan (my province is Sakon Nakhon, but Isan is what the Northeast is called as a whole). If you venture this far north, you are officially a “true” backpacker, because tourists don’t typically vacation anywhere around here. When I see one, especially with his/her spouse or a small child, I’m beyond impressed and also greatly questioning everything about their travel plans. To make it all so much worse, as I found out the other day when I went to the bus station, transportation here is horrible.

At the bus station I’d pulled out a list of 5 provinces in the Northeast that I wanted to see (keep in mind, this was already me compromising: What I really want is to go drink from a coconut in Phuket or check out waterfalls near Bangkok, but it’s impossible to do a trip like this in one weekend… my airport ONLY flies to Bangkok because of how small it is, and then I have to plan a separate flight/bus ride/ferry to anywhere interesting, so I wouldn’t arrive until Saturday, and then I’d only have a small amount of time to relax before preparing for all the flights/bus rides/ferries etc. again on Sunday… it could probably be done, but it doesn’t really seem worth it).

Anyways, so I brought my list only to find out that there is not a single bus going to even one of these provinces… and they are the most popular provinces! Taking a breath and pulling my sweaty hair back into a ponytail, I’d said to the bus terminal worker, “Okay, well, where can I go?”

“Udon Thoni.” He responded. So that was that.

Luckily, I have a good friend, Gaby, teaching in Nong Khai (she was my roommate in Bangkok!), a province only an hour away from Udon Thoni. The province is huge, and she didn’t want to stay near her apartment because she wanted a “vacation” too, so we agreed to meet at a hostel in a central location, right by the Mekong River. 3 hours in a bus with no A/C (I actually thought to myself… maybe I should allow myself to pass out from the heat, because then when I wake up, I’ll probably be there), plus another hour in a bus WITH A/C (shortest ride of my life), and finally, one ten-minute taxi, and I’d made it.

Is it bad if I say the best fried rice I've had in Thailand
came from the bus station?

My seat had this written on it... good luck?

Udon Thoni... looks a little city-like from the bus window!

So here are the highlights from my weekend in Nong Khai:

Mekong River Cruise: Had the place to ourselves (literally, only three other people on the boat besides the workers); my only suggestion is, don’t spend long figuring out what you want to eat… We did not figure out until it was too late that they will not leave the dock until after they’ve put your order in, cooked it, and brought it back to the boat… so we left an hour later than planned, all because we took 30 minutes before ordering chicken stir-fry). The sunset views were beautiful, and it was nice seeing the stores and temples along the pier from the water.

Pier market: On Saturday night all these food/clothing/miscellaneous street vendors come out. We had popcorn, mangos with sticky rice, and pie (we called this weekend “Western Weekend” because we truly only ate Western food… none of us could stand the sight of anything Thai, since in our villages, it’s always our only option). The “miscellaneous” includes coloring books, key chains, personalized mugs (with pictures of other families…) etc.

Also, bonus: On the pier (and everywhere else in Isan), if you are from America (or anywhere besides
Asia) people will literally stop you and say, “Can I take a picture with you?” on their cameras, like you
are a celebrity.

Wat Lam Duan: This temple was so cool (literally—Gaby and I sat inside the temple for a while just because the marble and fans made it feel air-conditioned, and we were dying). There’s a huge Buddha on the roof and you can look out at the river and the rest of Nong Khai. There was no one in the temple, so we sat inside for a while and looked at the paintings, which are beautiful, ornate, and look relatively modern.

The view of Nong Khai from the roof!

This was left as an offering for the large
Buddha statue

Wat Pho Chi Temple: This was such a great experience. The inside is beautiful… the paintings on the wall portray a story about Lao king Setthathirat, who had three daughters and made three statues, one for each of them.

As the legend goes, they were unable to get the heat high enough to melt the material to create the statues, until an angel (at least, the man who told us this story said angel, but I am not sure if that is correct) came to help.

In 1778, Thailand’s King Rama I took the statues from Laos and attempted to take all three to Bangkok. On the way, one of them fell into the river during a storm. Then, every time they tried to move the other one (this one is the one that is currently in Nong Khai) something went wrong. They believe that this statue will not move until the one that is lost, her sister, is found somewhere in the river.

Anyways, so the paintings on the wall portray this fascinating legend so well. The details are captivating. I could have stared for an hour at one square on a wall with hundreds of squares because of the mesmerizing details of one person’s clothing.

As I was looking at the paintings, an older Thai man came over and started talking to me. They do this a lot here, because they are trying to practice their English and also find Westerner’s exciting. After a couple minutes, he disappeared and came back with a monk who was holding a bag filled with hardboiled eggs (at least a dozen).
"He will bless you… also, take the eggs. They are good luck,” the man told me. This man then brought us some water. So we sat on the ground with our water and eggs and had bracelets tied around our wrists by a monk, who blessed us as he did so, all because of this sweet older Thai man.

Look at the details!

One of the three statues, sinking to the bottom of the river.

Cake at Toey’s: Didn’t even try the cake, but it felt incredibly European for a coffee shop and had very American-tasting (and sounding) coffee drinks.

Mut Mee Hostel—Best for last: Okay, so I probably shouldn’t say this was the best—I mean, I was blessed by a monk at a temple—but it definitely satisfied a lot of Gaby and I’s cravings. And it was the cutest hostel I’ve ever stayed at! There were a lot of other European guests staying there when we were there, even in mid-November, and there were swings and hammocks and palm trees and delicious food and drinks available all day.

Our view eating breakfast every morning

Our cute and cozy hostel room--$15 a night!

Overall, this was a great trip. Not necessarily because of the place (although some of the sites really did amaze me, especially the temples, and I greatly appreciated the more resort/vacation-vibes), but because I was around three American girls my age! Even better, Gaby brought her motorbike, and her and I had a blast jetting around the city and coming up with random adventures together. We found a hotel pool to swim in (and paid only $1 once they realized we were not guests).

We also found pizza, French fries, wine, ice cream, banana muffins, gummy bears, garlic bread, macaroni and cheese, spaghetti, sandwiches, eggs and bacon, pancakes… we truly did our due diligence testing out the Western food in Nong Khai. It was definitely not the BEST “American” food I’ve ever had… I have yet to find anything here that truly out-does anything authentic from home… but it was so delicious because it was not rice or pork! Also, a major perk of being in a non-touristy area: the entire trip cost us less than $80… $30 for two nights in this beautiful hostel; Less than $40 for all meals; and no more than $10 for all the extravagant extra-activities we did, like the river cruise.